Elmar Mock has been nominated by the European Patent Office for a Lifetime Achievement prize in the European Inventor Award 2017

Date : 27 April 2017

Elmar Mock, founder and Honorary President of the Biel/Bienne innovation company Creaholic SA, public speaker, author of numerous books, co-inventor of the Swatch watch and leading figure in the Swiss innovation sector, has been nominated by the European Patent Office for a Lifetime Achievement prize in the European Inventor Award 2017.

Creaholic received good news recently from the European Patent Office (EPA) in Munich: Elmar Mock, the founder of Creaholic and one of its long-standing inventors, has been nominated in the ‘Lifetime Achievement’ and ‘Popular Prize’ categories of the European Inventor Award 2017. Thanks to his commitment to the Creaholic team, which dates back over 30 years, the co-inventor of the Swatch watch is co-author of over 180 patent families, making him one of the driving forces behind the more than 750 projects that the Creaholic innovation company has so far brought to fruition. As a leading figure in the Swiss innovation sector, a public speaker and author, Elmar Mock has now been nominated by the European Patent Office as one of three candidates for the ‘lifetime achievement of an individual European inventor’.

“It is an enormous honour for me to be nominated in the Lifetime Achievement category,” said Elmar Mock. “After 40 years as an inventor and innovator, I am very honoured and touched by this mark of recognition and public appreciation”, continued Mock. The selection process for the Lifetime Achievement category is based on a strict process of assessment by EPA experts and an independent international jury that judges ‘innovations not only for their technological originality, but also for their economic and social impact’, as the Patent Office states. The ceremony to present the 12th European Inventor Award and the Popular Prize will be held on 15 June 2017 at the ‘Arsenale di Venezia’ in Venice.

All the nominees are also entered in the Popular Prize category, of which the winners are chosen by the general public in online voting on the EPA website. So now, from 26 April, anyone can use their online vote to help decide who should receive the Popular Prize.

Creaholic and Swisscom are creating an innovation center in Biel-Bienne

Date : 07 March 2017

Creaholic and Swisscom are joining forces. Their new initiative will result in the leading partnership for creating disruptive innovations. On May 1, 2017, approximately 25 employees from the Swisscom Human Centered Design (HCD) department will move to Creaholic. Swisscom is acquiring a five per cent stake in Creaholic and the two teams will work closely together to exploit their combined expertise.

The companies complement each other perfectly: Creaholic has thirty years of experience in the area of innovation development, has successfully founded and established several start-ups, and has over 800 projects in its portfolio. For its part, Swisscom has spent the past 14 years creating a culture of innovation based on a human-centered approach to design. New customer experiences have arisen from this, including new store designs and Swisscom inOne. Through their “HCD works” department, Swisscom has also been providing innovative services to external companies for the past two years.

Innovation as the key to success
Openness to innovation is now an important factor for success. Technologies are constantly changing, innovation cycles are shortening, new competitors are entering markets, and customers want to help shape the products they buy. Both Swisscom and Creaholic are driven by this conviction: The future is built by those who master innovation as a craft and focus on the clients and their needs.

Swisscom CEO Urs Schaeppi says, "Personally, I’m convinced that a human-centered development process is the way to go. It gives firms a significant competitive edge. We look forward to benefiting from the increased expertise and working together with Creaholic on product development and innovations in the future.” Approximately 35 Human Centered Design employees will stay at Swisscom to ensure that a design-conscious culture and way of working will continue to underpin all the company’s processes.

Geared up for digitalization
With the new team, Creaholic is very well positioned to meet the challenges posed by digitalization. Marcel Aeschlimann, Managing Partner and new Chairman of the Board of Directors, is looking forward to the future: “We are proud to become a leading innovation center and to offer our clients a wide range of services as ‘Professional Inventors’. We support our clients through the development of innovative products and want to become more client-focused and more agile as a company.” As a result of the merger, the Creaholic team in Biel-Bienne will grow to over 50 people.

Christina Taylor, Founder and Head of Human Centered Design at Swisscom, will join Creaholic as a partner, forming the new senior management team together with Marcel Aeschlimann and André Klopfenstein. Christian Petit, Member of the Swisscom Executive Board, is set to join the Creaholic Board of Directors. Elmar Mock will become Honorary President of the Board of Directors and will remain active in the company.

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News

Invention Morning | January 30, 2018

At Invention Mornings we share our passion for inventing. This event will be a discourse of how to approach IoT to generate business value.
Date :
06 December 2017
Read more

Invention Letter - The Creaholic team got reinforced

We are happy to announce our newly established partnership with Stefan Linder as our peer Creaholicer stationed in the Silicon Valley.
Date :
14 November 2017
Read more

New Board Members at Creaholic

Christian Petit and Adrian Walti join the Board of Directors of Creaholic
Date :
27 April 2017
Read more

What is Human Centred Design?

Creaholic clients will benefit hugely from this new area of expertise.
Date :
27 April 2017
Read more

At Invention Mornings we share our passion for inventing. This event will be a discourse of how to approach IoT to generate business value.

Datum : 06 December 2017

Invention Morning | January 30, 2018

The Invention Morning is a practical exchange platform designed to help you reinvent your business.Together with Swisscom, Creaholic organizes several Invention Mornings per year. These events address a range of forward-looking topics at the interface between technology and people. Technical, practical contributions coupled with cross-sector, face-to-face exchanges offer inspiration and highlight new opportunities for your company.

IoT beyond technologyAt this Invention Morning, we will be diving into the world of the Internet of Things (IoT). But we won’t just be talking about the technology. Why? Because although technological progress is exciting, it will only result in a commercial advantage if we develop it while taking the perspectives of our customers and/or employees into consideration. Curious about how you can inspire people with the IoT? If so, this Invention Morning is just the right event for you.

Who inspires usRalf Günthner, Head of Industrial IoT ＆ Industry 4.0, SwisscomHe is a bridge builder between Technology, Organizations and People. During the last years, he has advanced the swiss industry with end-to-end IoT solutions. Ralf holds a Master in Mechanical Engineering (KIT Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) and Coaching & Business Transformation (ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften).

What exactly is IoT and where do you draw the line between IoT and other advanced forms of technology such as AI?

What is hype and what is genuine business potential?

Creaholic, the professional inventorsCreaholic is a multicultural, international and interdisciplinary team of creative individuals with a broad spectrum of expertise, skills and project experience. The diversity within the team allows for a wide range of ideas to be exchanged when solving problems and for unique, robust solutions to be proposed.

How can solutions be developed that create added value for customers and businesses?

What methods help when developing IoT solutions?

How can valuable IoT solutions be developed with partners?

Stefan Linder, co-founder and former CEO of the Swiss Economic ForumIn August 2016, Stefan moved to Palo Alto, California, to complete a postgraduate degree at Stanford University. In Silicon Valley, he focuses closely on new technologies, market shifts, future-oriented issues and innovation. Stefan Linder completed a course at Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA) in autumn 2017.

What business models does IoT change?

Where is the IoT market emerging and what are the global trends?

What possible applications and market potential can be identified for the future?

What you can expect- No tech talk – the aim of the event is to discuss IoT from an application perspective- Exchange and reflection between companies- Methods for practical implementation- A look ahead to new opportunities created by this technology

Our community is growing all the time. One country, four languages – this has become too difficult to coordinate, which is why we have decided to adopt English as the primary language. Let’s rock our Swiss English. Peer-to-peer translation is possible.

Who you’ll meetA wide range of people looking to create or reinvent their business, nurture their innovative spirit, gain an energy boost from meeting influential change-makers, or simply take part in an inspiring morning. This event is not open to agencies or consultants.

At Invention Mornings we share our passion for inventing.
This event will be a discourse of how to approach IoT to generate business value.

We are happy to announce our newly established partnership with Stefan Linder as our peer Creaholicer stationed in the Silicon Valley.

Datum : 14 November 2017

We are happy to announce our newly established partnership with Stefan Linder, co-founder and former CEO of the Swiss Economic Forum and a good friend of ours. As our peer Creaholicer stationed in the Silicon Valley and other hotspots around the globe, Stefan Linder will contribute trend insights and analyses from an international perspective. Our clients may benefit from this knowledge not only in common invention projects but also by means of the quarterly Invention Letter.

Continuous invention bases on global trends

In Switzerland, innovation is big: we are a country at the forefront of innovation. Yet, we believe that to invent and reinvent today, one should open their horizon to other countries, cultures and traditions.

Our new partnership with Stefan Linder reinforces us in that respect: as our peer Creaholicer moving between the Silicon Valley, Switzerland and other hotspots around the globe, he will bring in a perspective on international happenings and opportunities. We are happy to welcome Stefan as a fellow Creaholicer.

Stefan’s research on global trends and future developments will enrich our knowledge base for generating ideas and transforming them into business. In addition, we want to share some of these exciting trend insights with you in a quarterly Invention Letter.

Invention Letter: quarterly insights on trends

Having been inventing products, services and technologies for over 30 years, we realized how important it is to be in a constant dialogue with the future. We also learnt that in the daily hectic, this dialogue often gets forgotten.

We therefore decided to share our knowledge on future developments and highlight important trends to you on a regular basis – to hopefully inspire discussion and encourage an open dialogue on continual invention.

Knowing that you are very busy, we choose the format of a brief, quarterly newsletter: the Invention Letter. Each Invention Letter will touch upon a few trend insights inspired by developments around the globe.

Get in touch

We will try to make these Newsletters like a snack: quick to read and energizing. If you are interested in depth insight into a certain area, contact us for more extensive research.

Feedbacks are very welcome.

Invention Morning

You have the opportunity to get to know Stefan Linder personally at the next Invention Morning organized by Creaholic in cooperation with Swisscom on 30th January 2018 at our office in Biel. At this morning event (08:30-13:00) we will look at the Internet of Things (IoT) from a user perspective and foster a practical exchange between companies from different industries. Stefan will give an outlook on new opportunities for businesses arising with this technology. Click here to sign up for updates.

Your Creaholic Team

Christina, Mars and André

Invention Letter - The Creaholic team got reinforced

Christian Petit and Adrian Walti join the Board of Directors of Creaholic

Datum : 27 April 2017

Two new members, Christian Petit and Adrian Walti, have joined the Creaholic Board of Directors. We look forward to working with them both and briefly introduce them here.

Christian Petit, born in Paris in 1963, has been working in Switzerland and at Swisscom since 2000. He occupied various posts there: he has been a member of the group management team since 2007, between 2007 and 2013 he was Head of the Residential Customers division and, from 2013, he was Head of the Enterprise Customers division. He has been a proponent of human-centred design for many years and played an important role in introducing those skills at Swisscom.

“I am looking forward to working with the management team at Creaholic very soon so that, together, we can make Creaholic an outstanding powerhouse of innovation in Europe. For me, it is a unique opportunity to combine Swisscom’s expertise in human-centred design with the existing skills and people at Creaholic.”

Christian Petit lives in Lausanne and has two children. He has an MBA from the ESSEC (Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales) – Cergy Pontoise – in France.

Dr Adrian Walti was born in 1963 in Roseville, California (USA). After studying at the University of St. Gallen (lic. oec. HSG), he took a doctorate at the Institute for Technology Management under Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Walter Eversheim. Adrian Walti worked for 14 years for the Boston Consulting Group in Zurich and Chicago and was the partner responsible for global industrial and consumer goods clients. His core competencies include not only strategy and business development but also innovation management, branding, restructuring and aspects of finance and the supply chain. From 2007 until 2013 he was Vice-President Strategy and M&A for Philip Morris International. Since 2013 he has been an active, independent director and advisor for various global family-owned companies. He draws inspiration for innovation and disruptive developments partly from his involvement with the Abundance 360 group, set up by Peter Diamandis, founder of the Singularity University think tank.

“Together with his two partners, Swatch inventor Elmar Mock and his restless creative spirit have permanently defined the DNA of Creaholic. For over 30 years, the special Creaholic approach to innovation, its corporate culture and its staffing mix have created disruptive solutions for clients in all kinds of industries. The merging of Creaholic with the Silicon Valley-inspired human-centred design team offers a unique opportunity to create a new and distinctive centre of innovation. To be able to take part in that is an enormous challenge and pleasure for me.”

Adrian Walti lives in Uetikon am See, and is married with two daughters. He enjoys spending his leisure time by the lake and in the mountains.

Christian Petit
Board of Directors of Creaholic

Adrian Walti
Board of Directors of CreaholicAdrian Walti

Creaholic clients will benefit hugely from this new area of expertise.

Datum : 27 April 2017

Thanks to the addition of about 25 members of staff from the Human Centered Design (HCD) department at Swisscom, Creaholic clients will benefit hugely from this new area of expertise. But what actually is human-centred design? Here we introduce the benefits and characteristics of this way of working.

Human-centered design is a working method that is intended to create products and services tailored to customers’ needs. It involves analyzing and improving existing customer experiences or developing and implementing new ideas from scratch. The key factor in achieving those goals is to put the user of a product or service—and their requirements, characteristics, and preferences—at the forefront of the development process. Human-centered design unites what makes sense from a human point of view with technical feasibility and economic viability.

Through this need-focused product and service development, HCD supports organizations as they integrate individual offerings into a holistic brand experience and forge long-lasting connections with customers. Thus, HCD pertains to change and innovation processes in all the important aspects of an organization: from product development to key performance indicators, from the training of coworkers to the design of the office, from high-level strategy to practical methods and tools for innovation.